Closure for milk-jars and the like.



A. E. AYER. CLOSURE FOR.MILK JARS AND THB'LIKE. APPLICATION FILED MAY 21, 1913.

1,082,989; Patented Dec. 30, 1913.

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ALTON E. LAYER, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO JOHN BAXTER, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

CLOSURE FOR MILK-JARS AND THE LIKE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

PatentedDec. 30, 1913.

Application filed May 21, 1913. Serial No. 768,902.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALTON E. Arne, a citizen of the United States, residing at Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Closures for Milk-Jars and the like, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to closures for milk jars and the like.

In the distribution of milk to the consumer in pint, quart or other small quantities, glass jars are customarily used, closed by a simple disk of paste-board which is sprung into place in an annular groove at the mouth of the bottle. During the conveyance and handling of these jars, and afterward so long as the jar remains covered by this disk, the disk and upstanding edges of the groove around it form a little cup in which any dust of the street, or other matter that may fall upon it is held; and there is danger of this being spilled into the jar or mixed with its contents when the disk is re moved or the milk poured out. In this manner milk which has been maintained carefully pure and aseptic may at the last moment become contaminated.

It is an object of the invention to prevent this by a simple, inexpensive and neat means; and also to provide means for removing the disk, and for maintaining the jar covered after being opened, if desired, without the need of soiling the fingers by handling the disk, or of soiling the disk by handling it in replacing it; and also to provide the other advantages that are characteristic of the construction hereinafter described.

The objects of the invention are accomplished by providing a spring wire appliance in the form of a nearly complete annulus which expands into the annular groove that is ordinarily provided internally at the mouth of a milk jar. The wire fits under the ordinary paste-board disk, around the larger part of the circle, and has parts that project to above the top of the jar and are there fastened together over another disk, which rests upon the outside of the jar and thus forms a hood or external roof. By grasping the outside part of the wire, one may readily lift both of the paste-board disks from the jar. After the jar has once been opened the inner disk ordinarily will not be returned to its position, although that can be done if desired, but the outer one can be returned to its place and will be held there, on the outside of the jar month, by engaging the annular spring in the groove 11 again. If desired, the inner disk closure may be omitted entirely and the outer cover held on the jar by the engagement of the wire with the groove below it.

The construction and operation of the device is shown more in detail hereinafter; and one embodiment of it is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which.

Figure 1 is an elevation in section, show mg the jar closed; Fig. 2 is a plan of the same; Flg. 3 is a perspective of the wire part preliminary to closure; Fig. 1 is a section through a modified form of cover; and Fig. 5 is a section through another form of cover.

Referring to the drawings, 10 represents a milk j ar, 11 the internal circular groove at its mouth, 12 the rim above that groove, between it and the extreme edge of the mouth, and 13 a paste-board disk sprung into place in the groove 11 and held therein by the lip 12, in the manner now customary, or in any suitable manner. The invention provides a wire appliance having a part 14 which forms the greater portion of a circle and is adapted to fit into the groove 11 under the disk 13. This wire also has a twisted loop 15 rising from this circle to a level above the top of the bottle, and an end 16 which rises to above the top of the bottle at a position diametrically-opposite the loop 15. The end 16 sticks up far enough so that it can be bent down and inserted in the upstanding loop 15 on the other side of the jar. A. cover 17 is also provided, which may be of pasteboard, large enough in diameter, and suitably formed to cover the mouth of the bottle adequately externally. This is provided with holes 17 which may, if preferred, and

as illustrated, be in the form of slots through which the upstanding loop 15 and end 16 may pass.

It will be understood that the loop 15, or its stem, is so formed as to lie close to the glass of the ar, so that its presence does not interfere with the insertion of the disk 13;

and that the beginning of the upstanding.

portion 16 is likewise bent into conformity with the internal surface of the jarmouth over which it passes on its way upward;

and each may also be shaped inward a little the loop, in which position it remains.

at the proper elevation so as to hold the cover 17 from rising. In closing a jar, after the cover 17 has been put in position, covering the entire bottle mouth, with the loop 15 and the end of wire 16 projecting up through it, the end of'wire is bent downward and across over the disk and stuck into In order to keep it there, the extreme end 16 of the wire may be bent sharply upward and backward, so that it is hooked into the loop.

In use the various parts of the apparatus are assembled as just described. The wire spring annulus is first engaged in the groove 11, then the disk 13 is put in, resting upon the wire, with the wire lying under nearly the whole edge of the disk and thus holding the disk up against the upper edge of the groove; then the cover 17 is put in place and the wire end-16 clasped down and hooked above it. Any matter which then falls upon the milk jar, falls only upon the outside cover 17, and may be readily removed before the jar is opened or need not be removed at all except as it is removed with the removal of the cover 17 when the jar is opened, without danger of it or any portion of it reaching the liquid. Preferably the outer cover 17 may be made somewhat conical or convex so that rain, drippings from ice, or any other liquid that may fall or condense thereon will run to the edge thereof and dro 01f outside of the bottle.

hen the bottle is to be opened one simply takes hold of the part 16, which now constitutes a substantially horizontal handle or loop, and lifts both covers oif of the bottle. In lifting, the wire 14, which underlies the disk 13, instantly snaps that disk out of its place and lifts it from the mouth, leaving the jar mouth clean and clear because the portion thereof which was above the disk 13 was protected.

If it be desired tore-cover the jar it ordinarily will not be necessary to close it as tightly as when being packed for shipment and distribution; and so it is only neces sary to take hold of the wire 16 and, using that as a handle, to replace the cover 17, i

in the doin of which the wire 141 will spring back into the groove 11 and thus will hold the cover 17 over the bottle, the disk 13 being now abandoned. Obviously, for some purposes, the disk 13 may be omitted originally, andthe cover 17 alone relied upon. In that case a smaller groove 11 might be provided, or a stiifer wire 14, or both; and in that case also the part 17 might be shaped more definitely as a hood with depending flanges 17 completely sheltering the lip of the bottle mouth from any lateral currents of air or moving dust; and the holes through the disk might then move naturally take the form of perforations just large enough for the passage of the loop 15 and wire end 16, as illustrated in Fig. 5; The paste-board disks can be formed rapidly and inexpensively by machinery; and the wire appliances can be likewise made rapidly and inexpensively by suitable machinery in the form illustrated in Fig. 3, after which they are bent, by the person who closes the jar, into the form illustrated in Fig. 1. The quality of brittleness of metal used in this wire may be such that when the end 16 has once been sharply bent into the hook shape illustrated in Fig. 1, it cannot be bent back again in order to unfasten and remove it from the-loop without breaking it. This then affords a simple and practical seal for the jar because after a jar has been once closed, in accordance with the appliance of the invention, using the under disk 13, and has been opened, it is not easily practicable to put the disk 13 back into place again without first removing the top cover 17, and this operation cannot be performed and the parts restored to place if the end of the hook has been broken off by once opening. Or, a

compression lead seal, or other seal of suitable type, might be employed to fasten the parts 16 and 15 together. The jar could be opened without breaking the seal, but it would be impracticable to return the disk 13 to its place without breaking and re-making the seal. Vhile three forms of the cover 17 have been illustrated in the drawings, it is obvious that other forms might be used, and in fact variations may be made in a number of respects, in the a paratus here illustrated, without departing rom the invention as expressed in the appended claims, the aim of which is to cover whatever features of novelty exist in the inven tion herein disclosed.

I claim as my invention:

1. A jar closure comprising a spring formed to expand into an annular internal groove at the mouth of a ar, combined with a cover adapted to fit externally over the mouth ofthe jar, the spring having a portion adapted to project upthrough said cover and to hold it down.

2. A jar closure comprising a spring formed to expand into an annular internal groove at the mouth of a jar, combined with a cover adapted to fit externally over the mouth of the jar, the spring having parts at two separated places adapted to project up through said cover and to engage the top two separated places adapted to project up through said cover and to engage each other above it.

4. A jar. closure comprising a-wire formed annularly and adapted to expand into a groove within the mouth of a jar, combined with a cover adapted to fit externally over the mouth of the jar, the wire having cooperating projections adapted to engage separated portions of the cover to hold it down. 7

5. A jar closure comprising a spring formed to expand into an annular groove at the mouth of a ar, combined with a closure disk adapted to fit in said groove above the spring and a cover adapted to fit externally over the mouth of the jar, the spring being formed to project past the disk and through the external cover to hold the external cover in place.

6. A jar closure comprising a wire formed to expand into an annular groove at the mouth of a jar, combined with a cover adapted to fit externally over the mouth of the jar; the wire being formed at one place into a loop adapted to project up through the cover, and having an end adapted to project up through and to be bent down over the cover, engaging as a pin in said loop.

7 A jar closure comprising a wire formed to expand into an annular groove at the mouth of a jar, combined with a cover adapted to fit externally over the mouth of the jar; the wire being formed at one place into a loop adapted to project up through the cover and having an end adapted to project up through and to be bent down over the cover as a pin engaging in said loop, and to be bent sharply up forming a hook on the other side of the loop, the said wire being of a quality of brittleness permitting such bending once, but breaking when bent backward to unfasten the hook.

8. A jar closure comprising the combination of a disk adapted to engage in an annular groove within the mouth of the jar, with a cover adapted to fit externally on the jar mouth above the rim that constitutes the upper edge of said groove, and means connected with said internal disk to hold said external cover in place.

Signed by me at Boston, Mass, this seventeenth day of May, 1913.

ALTON E. AYER.

Witnesses:

EVERETT E. KENT, ANNA B. LINDSAY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. G. 

